Stick inserter

ABSTRACT

A machine inserts sticks into rapidly freezing confections by presenting a tape which holds the sticks in a horizontal plane to a gripping mechanism. After this gripping mechanism has gripped certain sticks, it - the gripping mechanism - is moved away from the tape and turned; and it is then plunged downwardly towards the molds which are full of confection mixture, which is freezing rapidly, so that the sticks penetrate into and are held by the confection mixture. The sticks are released and the gripping mechanism is returned to the tape to begin the cycle again. Fresh sticks are presented to the gripping mechanism because movement of the tape took place while the gripping mechanism was inserting the sticks in the freezing mixture.

United States Patent [191 Tremblay [54] STICK INSERTER [75] Inventor:Theodose Tremblay, Montreal,

Quebec, Canada [73] Assignee: John Lewis 1nc., Montreal, Quebec,

Canada [22] Filed: Oct. 26, 1970 [21] Appl. No: 84,099

[51] Int. Cl ..A23g 1/20, A23g 1/22, A23g 3/12,

A23g 3/16, A23g 3/18, A23g 5/02, B29c 27/14 58 Field of Search ..99/86,90 R, 136;

145 May1,1973

Primary Examiner-G. V. Larkin Att0rney-Stevens, Davis, Miller 8.: Mosher[5 7] ABSTRACT A machine inserts sticks into rapidly freezingconfections by presenting a tape which holds the sticks in a horizontalplane to a gripping mechanism. After this gripping mechanism has grippedcertain sticks, it the gripping mechanism is moved away from the tapeand turned; and it is then plunged downwardly towards the molds whichare full of confection mixture, which is freezing rapidly, so that thesticks penetrate into and are held by the confection mixture. The sticksare released and the gripping mechanism is returned to the tape to beginthe cycle again. Fresh sticks are presented to the gripping mechanismbecause movement of the tape took place while the gripping mechanism wasinserting the. sticks in the freezing mixture.

13 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures Paten: d May 1, 1973 I 3,730,661

4 Sheets-Sheet 1 [4 4 6, seq/4 FIG. 9.

Patented May 1, 1973 3,730,661

4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 1, 1973 3,730,661

4 Sheets-Sheet 5 CLUTCH 2 (sq I00) 11 FIG.5.

Patented May 1, 1973 3,730,661

4 Sheets-Sheet 4 STICK INSERTER This invention concerns that portion ofa frozen stick confection machine called a stick inserter." Suchmachines are well known in the dairy and food industries supply industryunder the trademarks Vitaline and Gram.

The stick inserter, as now engineered, is a problem to the user for thereasons given below after a brief description. The stick insertercomprises a slot with a reciprocating plunger or piston which rams astick into the rapidly freezing confection on the downstroke andretracts upwardly to allow another stick to enter the slot. These sticksare presented to the slot in the form of what is virtually a preslicedblock with the major flat surfaces of the stick face to face; and springpressure urges the block forward so that it projects into the slot bythe thickness of one stick, when the plunger is retracted. It will beunderstood that there may be sixteen slots in parallel on a givenmachine producing double stick confections. The basic mechanicalprinciple on which each slot and plunger works is somewhat analagous tothat used in stapling machines.

Unfortunately, this system has some serious disadvantages when used infrozen confection machines with wooden sticks. Due to the force whichmay be required for some confections (as explained below) the spring andplunger forces are rather high; this demands very accurate sticks. Onethat is thick will not enter the slot properly, and one that is thinwill allow the next to enter the slot partly; one that is slightly bowedwill not enter properly and, of course, the slightest knot or flaw maycause the stick to break or splinter.

Machines for packing accurate sticks face to face into presliced blocksand then banding them together with paper are well known as it isnecessary to ship these packs to distant confection making plants.Unfortunately the number of sticks per block or package is limited bymechanical column stability considerations; 50 sticks, i.e., about 4inches long, is about the limit of convenience for the banding paper andthese packages are placed in the machine manually.

The net result of all these factors is that the wastage of sticks isrelatively high about 25 percent; sticks must be accurate near perfectbecause one poor stick jammed in one slot stops the operation of allplungers. Moreover, on two stick confections, the sticks are used sorapidly that placing the stick blocks in the 16 feeds of a standardmachine require almost the full time attention of one operator. Bothfactors raise costs.

In order to overcome these shortcomings an inexpensive package has beendeveloped which allows sticks to be held in a paper tape rather thanformed into presliced packages of limited number; the paper of coursecan be unspooled from a roll holding 10,000 sticks or more and fedacross the machine mechanically, thus removing the necessity for fulltime supervision. The tape and method of making it are described in U.S.Pat. No. 3,605,373 issued on Sept. 20, 1970.

The adapting of the tape package to the standard type of stick inserterwas found to be rather more difficult than might be supposed. In orderto reduce the package cost for reasons of hygiene the paper issubmultiple of 3 inches which is the standard mold lateral pitch. Afirst attempt was to remove the stick from the tape by means of a seriesof idler rollers which would press the preselected ones of the sticksagainst a common driven roll. The sticks fell down chutes to plungertype inserters of the same type as before, although dimensions wereeased, of course, to accommodate thicker-than-normal or slightly bowedsticks. This approach, while seemingly attractive, in that it used knowntechniques and many pre-existing parts, did not give results that wereacceptable in that the faults which developed cost more than theoperator time saved.

Accordingly, a completely new method of stick insertion has beendeveloped. The requirements for such a machine are rather stringent; thestick has to be directed firmly on insertion because frozen waterconfections unlike ice cream present a widely vary ing resistance tostick insertion; this resistance increases sharply with the small dropin temperature which occurs after start up when the plant has thoroughlycooled down to operating temperature. Some water confections (e.g., twinbar confections) have two sticks at an angle to the surface and if thestick is not reasonably firmly held as in a slide it tends to skatealong the partly frozen surface. Moving the inserter to a less frozenrow does not solve the problem properly because the sticks then tend tofloat resulting in initial wastage. Hence insertion by holding thesticks between rollers does not work with the exceedingly low failurerate required, and raising the roller pressure splinters some sticks (ahazard to children) or requires an accuracy of alignment and register ofthe roller width on the stick which is virtually impossible to achievein practice.

Another requirement is that of versatility, the ability to change easilyfrom making single stick wide confections to making single stick narrowconfections (both having sticks along the central axis); and an insertershould also make double stick confections, in which the sticks are setat an angle to one another and the central axis.

It is alsopr'eferable to handle the tape with the planar surfacehorizontal, since if vertical the occasional stick might tend to slipout of the tape due to the intermittent nature of operation of the stickinserter, and this horizontal handling is also achieved by the machinedescribed below.

The invention may best be understood by referring to the drawings whichillustrate by way of example, one

embodiment.

In the drawings:

FIG. I is a perspective view showing the stick inserter of thisinvention mounted on a Vitaline" frozen stick confection machine;

FIG. 5 illustrates a circuit diagram showing mechanical actuation ofswitches to operate an electrical clutch;

FIGS. 6, 7, 8 and 9 show in partly diagrammatic form the sequence ofoperations of the stick inserter.

In the drawings, it will be seen that there are basically threemechanisms; the first is the tape transporting mechanism 2, the secondis the stick-grip-and-release mechanism 4, and the third is mechanism 6for translating the gripped sticks from the paper tape to the molds.

As will be described below the first tape transport mechanism iselectrically driven and the second and third mechanisms arepneumatically driven by the air impulse which was used to operate theplungers of the prior art stick inserter. Moreover, the second and thirdmechanisms, as will be explained later below, are pneumatically linkedtogether without any pressure sensing devices, microswitches or thelike.

Turning to the details of the tape transporting mechanism, the tape 8carrying sticks 10 unspools from roll 12 because the power drivenendless chains 14 have projections (not shown) of the type well known onroller chains; and these projections engage the sticks 10 so as tounspool the tape 8 from roll 12. The power for driving the chain 14 issupplied from electric motor 18 which runs continuously, through theelectrically operated clutch 20 and right angle worm reducing drive 22.The control of the operation of the clutch will be described furtherbelow.

The output shaft 24tfrom the worm reducer 22 is coupled through aflexible coupling 26 to another shaft, 28, which is supported by twopillow blocks 30, 32 in a double cantilever mounting. Beyond thesepillow blocks, two sprockets 34, 36 are keyed to shaft 28; they arespaced apart to accept the width of the paper tape between them and, ofcourse, drive the two chains 14 with the stick engaging projectionsmentioned above.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the details ofthese arrangements are not, in themselves, of great consequence and manyother drives could be designed to carry out the same function. There aresome minor advantages to the drive portrayed; for instance having thepower drive axis parallel to the tape means that the stick insertingstation occupies less length along the frozen confection machine. Thechain, drive, 'motor, clutch, worm reducer and sprockets, flexiblecouplings, pillow blocks and the like are standard items and may beobtained from Boston Gear or similar organizations and even theprojections are a simple modification of a catalog item.

The function of the minor ancillary items will probably be evident fromthe drawings but they will be mentioned for the sake of completeness.The chain drives 14 have idler sprockets 38, 40 on shaft 42 supportingthem so that the two chains 14 are substantially horizontal and the taperuns intermittently (as will be explained) between them. In order togive the tape itself some additional support, drums in the nature ofwide faced pulleys 46, 48 are keyed to shafts 26 and 42 between thepulleys.

The chain drive 14 thus pulls the tape 8 out of the spool by pulling onthe sticks 12, but the effective weight of the tape and sticks issupported on the belt and drive 46, 48, 50. An elongated nylon brush(not shown for the sake of clarity) above the tape presses it and thesticks down on to the belt the reason for this being that this keeps thepaper tape flat; otherwise the tape tends to buckle as some of thesticks are removed which can cause misalignment. A spool 58 gathers upthe empty tape after the sticks have been extracted, for easy disposal.

A bent metal sheet (illustrated diagrammatically as a flat plate 54)extends along the width of the frozen confection machine, above andadjacent the layer of sticks so as to provide a groove; the paper edgecloser to the stick grip mechanism slides in this groove which thusretains the paper tape when the sticks are being withdrawn and helps toprevent buckling of the tape.

A bar 56 running across the machine is provided as a back up bar so thatthe sticks and tape assembly do not recede from thestick-grip-and-release mechanism and thereby improperly stress the chaindrives 14 by lateral loading.

This stick-grip-and-release mechanism 4 is best understood by referenceto the detail in FIG. 4 and comprises a base plate 60 with two integralextending arms 62. This base plate is moved in a manner to be describedbelow by the translation mechanism 6, and is thus in the nature of abackbone or mainstay of the stick gripping mechanism and not animmovable foundation. However, one portion of it, 64, is called thenon-moving clamp jaw to distinguish it from the moving clamp jaws 66.The non-moving clamp jaw 64 effectively runs the width of the frozenconfection machine but there are a plurality of moving jaws 66 each ofwhich is as wide as the width of the stick.

These moving clamp jaws 66 are part of a sub-assembly 68 which pivotsabout shaft 70; this shaft is mounted in nylon bearing blocks 72, 74.These bearing blocks are split for easy replacement of the shaft 70 andthe subassembly 68, when jaw changeover from say 8 stick insertion to 16stick insertion is required.

The subassembly 68 comprises a plate 76 to which are welded two arms 78.These arms correspond with and are connected to the two arms 62 on thebase plate through two linear air motors 80. This plate 76 is bolted toclamp support block 82, trapping register plate 84 between them. Clampsupport block'82 also carries the shaft 70. The jaws themselves are notrigidly integral with the subassembly 68 but are free to move againstthe load of a stiff spring 85 and is retained by shouldered dowel bolt,86. It may also rotate slightly for reasons which will be made clearbelow.

Pressure bar 88 slides to and fro, under the action of guide 90 and foursprings 92, as the whole stick grip mechanism 2 moves forward to pick upsticks and then releases them. A hinged cover 94 clips in to enclose theunderside and to prevent any oil leakage from the piston rod of airmotor 80 falling onto the confection being frozen.

The air motor is essentially a double acting piston in a cylinder, thepiston and the cylinder housing at the piston rod end being providedwith O-ring seals to minimize air leakage. Such air motors are catalogitems and may be obtained from a number of suppliers. The sequence ofoperation of the air motors 80 and the interactions with pressure bar 88will be described later below.

The translating mechanism is also driven by air pres sure and comprisesan L-shaped guide 96, and a pair of racks and pinions 100, 106 and 104,108. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that such anarrangement is by no means of the essence of the broad concept of theinvention; and that if such a motion is desired it could be carried outby other types of mechanisms. Furthermore, other types of translationalmotion can be used depending upon the relationship between the planes ofthe stick strip when the sticks are being extracted and the verticalneeded for insertion of the sticks into open molds with horizontalquasi-liquid surfaces.

Nevertheless, there are certain advantages in having the plane of thestick strip and hence the spool axis horizontal so that the motion to bedescribed is the preferred motion. Moreover, the guide and rack andpinion approach requires only simple machining and standard itemsavailable from organizations selling power transmission products such aschains, worm reducers and the like, and as will be shown the motion ofthe two sides can be ganged easily together so as to maintain uniforminsertion from one side of the machine to the other.

Thus, the mechanism comprises L-shaped guide 96 at each end in a faceplate 98 which is welded to the inserter frame. The L-shaped guide hastwo straight portions joined by a radius all of which can be cut simplyon a vertical milling machine. The stick-grip-andrelease mechanism 4 issupported by stub shafts 102 extending from the base plate through theL-shaped guide 96 in the frame face plate 98. Racks 100, 104 areattached to the base plate 60, one at each side and each engages a cogor pinion 106, 108. These two pinions are keyed on to one shaft 110which is of relatively thick section to minimize any twist and whichthus keeps the motion of the two sides in step; they are otherwise freeto turn. As will be noted the racks 100, 104 travel above the pinions106, 108 as the stub shafts 102 travel along the L-shaped guideconstraints 96 and are then directed downwardly engaging that side ofthe pinionscloser to the stick strip 8, 10. The effect of this rack andpinion action is to turn the base plate 60 (together with the fingergripping mechanism, air motors 80 and the like) bodily through 90 whileit is being moved linearly and along and downwardly through the actionof the L-shaped guide constraint 96. This superposition of lateralmovement and turning motion is achieved with the air of simple parts,the guide constraint providing lateral movement and the rack and pinionproviding turning; this may be easily understood by reference to FIGS.6, 7, 8 and 9. These will be explained more fully below.

Power for this operation is supplied by a large linear air motor 1 l2hinged on a rigid arm 114 which is bolted to the machine frame. Thisarrangement is simple, but has the minor disadvantage that occasionaloperator attendance is needed; otherwise oil in the pneumatic air mayeventually pass out through the piston rod gland and occasionally dripon to the confection. A rotary motor with a crank output and semi-circlemotion will overcome this a connecting rod is attached between the crankand stick-grip-and-release mechanism 4 but the simpler linear air motoris shown to avoid mere mechanical improvement detail.

Moreover, the great advantage of this arrangement is that the standardair impulse, previously used to operate the slides of. the prior arttype injector (with the banded presliced blocks) may be used to driveboth the stick-grip-and-release mechanism and also the translationmechanism without the need for electrical relays,

time delays, throttling devices or the like. A simple bifurcation of theair supply lines into 2 equal parts ensures that the air motors 80,because of their smaller volume, operate to grip the sticks before theair motor 112 drives the translation mechanism to insert the sticks intothe molds; and on the powered return stroke the air impulse operates onthe other side of the piston of air motors so as to release the sticksbefore pressure can build up enough in the other side of air motor 112to start moving the translation mechanism back again.

Two more features require explanation before the full operation of themachine can be understood. Firstly, microswitch 116 is arranged tooperate the electric clutch 20 each time the stick-grip-and-releasemechanism 2 moves away from the tape. This causes the stick strip toadvance across the machine until one set of contacts on microswitch 118are tripped or opened by a stick 10 which has advanced to a positionwhere it is opposite the last of the moving clamps 66. The othercontacts of microswitch 118 that is the circuit that is closed by theadvancing stick is used to operate a buzzer alarm. Normally it is only asecond or so before the stick is plucked from the tape but if prolongedas by a broken stick keeping microswitch 118 open the continuous soundof the buzzer warns the operator, most effectively, that confections arebeing made without sticks. The circuit diagram of FIG. 5 shows theelectromechanical arrangement which could by a suitable time delay, bemade to suppress buzzer operation completely unless failure occurred.

Secondly, the two sticks-at-an-angle in each confection is achievedeasily, when desired, by the addition of a row of deflectors 120 whichcan be attached or removed by studs and wing 'nuts not illustrated.These may be seen most easily in FIG. ll. The reason for the rotation ofmoving clamp 66 in FIG. 4, about shouldered bolt 86, will now be evidentas the whole assembly rotates the sticks 8 sweep past deflectors 120,the finger tips 124 of clamps 66 can move to accommodate the rotation ofthe sticks as they are cantilevered by the deflectors.

It will be known to those skilled in the art that stick inserters areusually provided with wheels 126 and clamps 128 so that the inserterstation position can be adjusted and secured under the transientconditions after start up when the machine has not reached its lowesttemperature. The freezing mixture at the station must be of just theright consistency so as both to allow insertion of the stick and toafford support.

The operation of the full cycle can now be explained with reference toFIGS. 6, 7, 8 and 9. Towards the end ing of the return stroke of airmotor 112 (after sticks have been placed in molds) the stick grip andrelease mechanism 2 is positioned as shown in FIG. 6 so that it ishorizontal; the L-shaped guide 96 and the rack cause it to move towardsthe tape until the row of sticks 10 press against the pressure bar 88(see FIG. 4); under the action of back up bar 56 the sticks 10 force thepressure bar 88 and guide back against the load of springs 92 as thestick grip and release mechanism 2 continues to move forward to the endof the horizontal portion of the L-shaped guide 96.

The actuating impulse of the air pressure applied from the machine (thesame as for the prior art stick inserter) then operates air motors 80first because of their low volume. Subassembly 68 is thus rotated withshaft 70 so that moving clamps 66 grip one stick each, as illustrated onFIG. 7.

As air pressure builds up in air motor 112, the stickgrip-and-releasemechanism 4 withdraws sticks 10 from the paper tape 8, (operatingmicroswitch 116, not shown on FIG. 8, immediately after it has done so)then turns about its mounting stub shafts 102 under the action ofL-shaped guide 96 and the rack and pinion 100, 104, 106, 103; deflectors120 if in position adjust the sticks so that their angle of entry intothe mold subsequently will be correct. After the turning motion of thestick-grip-and-release mechanism 4, the plane of the sticks is vertical(whether the deflectors are present or not) and the mechanism travelsdown the vertical arm of L-shaped guide constraint 96 and plunges thesticks into the molds full of rapidly freezing confection, as shown infull in FIG. 9.

The second pneumatic impulse also operates air motors 80 first,releasing the sticks as shown in chain dotted lines in FIG. 9. Pressurebar 88 (not shown in FIG. 9) returns to the position shown in FIG. 4under the action of springs 92; the air takes longer to operate thelarger motor 112 and to start it lifting its heavier load mechanism 4;this sequence is illustrated by the arrows B and C. By the timemechanism 4 has returned to the starting position microswitch 118 hasopened so as to terminate operation of the clutch 16, which caused thetape to move. The time available is adequate as the machine is only twofeet wide or so and the cycle time (only half of which may be available)for tape traverse is about 1 second.

It will be clear that the moving clamps 66 will always find fresh sticksready for them whether every second stick is taken as seen in FIG. 1 orevery fourth stick as seen in FIG. 2, even through every third clutchoperation or every fifth clutch engagement will last much longer as thepaper tape, then spanning the inserter, will be empty.

Thus, it will be seen that simple changes will adapt the inserter todifferent conditions and that a single machine will conform to manystick insertion and mold requirements.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for inserting sticks into confection molds comprising:

a means for intermittently transporting a paper tape, containingconfection sticks which are regularly spaced apart in a plane across anarray of advancing molds;

a means for gripping a predetermined series of sticks near an end ofeach stick while said intermittently transporting means is momentarilystationary; and

a means for moving bodily said gripping means to a position adjacentsaid confection molds, the movement being adapted to withdraw sticksfrom the tape'and insert the ungripped ends thereof into said confectionmolds.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim l in which the means for bodilymoving the gripping means further comprises guide means for guiding thegripping means to follow a path substantially parallel to the plane ofthe paper tape and then downwardly and means for turning the grippingmeans so that the last portion of the downward motion is carried outwith the sticks in a substantially vertical plane.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which the means for turning thegripping means comprises a rack at each side of the gripping means and apinion cooperating with each rack and in which the two pinions are keyedto a common shaft.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2 and further comprising deflectormeans for changing the angle of the sticks within the plane so that twosticks may be inserted into one mold with the plane of the sticksvertical but with the individual sticks in the plane at an angle to thevertical and to one another, and wherein said deflector means is securedso as to deflect the sticks while the gripping means is undergoingsubstantial turning motion.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the means for gripping apredetermined series of sticks comprise an air motor having a piston aseries of moving jaws and means connecting the air motor piston to themoving jaws.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5 in which the means for bodilymoving said gripping means comprises an air motor, the bodily movingmeans air motor being much larger than said gripping means air motor sothat when connected to the same air supply the gripping means air motoroperates before the bodily moving means air motor.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 and further comprising deflectormeans for changing the angle of the sticks within the plane so that twosticks may be inserted into one mold with the plane of the sticksvertical but with the individual sticks in the plane at an angle to thevertical and to one another.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5 in which the series of moving jawsare secured to a common shaft and further comprising quick releasebearing means locating said shaft, so that the series of moving jaws maybe replaced by a second series.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the means forintermittently transporting confection sticks comprises an electricmotor, an electrically operated clutch and means for sensing thepresence or absence of a stick at a given position the sensing meansbeing connected to engage the clutch to move the papertape where a stickis absent from a predetermined location.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein the means for sensing thepresence of a stick at a given position is connected to an alarm meansso as to sound a continuous alarm if the means for intermittentlytransporting confection sticks fails to operate.

11. A method of inserting sticks into confection molds comprising thesteps of:

transporting sticks intermittently to a series of stations in a planeacross an array of advancing molds,

gripping said sticks near one end at the'stations,

moving the gripped end of said sticks away from said stations,

moving the gripped sticks so that the free end enters said confectionmolds and releasing said sticks.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 in which the step of moving thegripped sticks so that the free end enters confection molds comprisesthe step of simultaneously turning and downwardly moving said sticks.

13. A method as claimed in claim 12 and further comprising the step ofaltering the angle of said gripping sticks relative to one another whilesimultaneous with the step of turning said gripped sticks.

1. An apparatus for inserting sticks into confection molds comprising: ameans for intermittently transporting a paper tape, containingconfection sticks which are regularly spaced apart , in a plane acrossan array of advancing molds; a means for gripping a predetermined seriesof sticks near an end of each stick while said intermittentlytransporting means is momentarily stationary; and a means for movingbodily said gripping means to a position adjacent said confection molds,the movement being adapted to withdraw sticks from the tape and insertthe ungripped ends thereof into said confection molds.
 2. An apparatusas claimed in claim 1 in which the means for bodily moving the grippingmeans further comprises guide means for guiding the gripping means tofollow a path substantially parallel to the plane of the paper tape andthen downwardly and means for turning the gripping means so that thelast portion of the downward motion is carried out with the sticks in asubstantially vertical plane.
 3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2 inwhich the means for turning the gripping means comprises a rack at eachside of the gripping means and a pinion cooperating with each rack andin which the two pinions are keyed to a common shaft.
 4. An apparatus asclaimed in claim 2 and further comprising deflector means for changingthe angle of the sticks within the plane so that two sticks may beinserted into one mold with the plane of the sticks vertical but withthe individual sticks in the plane at an angle to the vertical , and toone another, and wherein said deflector means is secured so as todeflect the sticks while the gripping means is undergoing substantialturning motion.
 5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the meansfor gripping a predetermined series of sticks comprise an air motorhaving a piston , a series of moving jaws and means connecting the airmotor piston to the moving jaws.
 6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 5in which the means for bodily moving said gripping means comprises anair motor, the bodily moving means air motor being much larger than saidgripping means air motor so that when connected to the same air supplythe gripping means air motor operates before the bodily moving means airmotor.
 7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 and further comprisingdeflector means for changing the angle of the sticks within the plane sothat two sticks may be inserted into one mold with the plane of thesticks vertical but with the individual sticks in the plane at an angleto the vertical and to one another.
 8. An apparatus as claimed in claim5 in which the series of moving jaws are secured to a common shaft andfurther comprising quick release bearing means locating said shaft, sothat the series of moving jaws may be replaced by a second series.
 9. Anapparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the means for intermittentlytransporting confection sticks comprises an electric motor, anelectrically operated clutch and means for sensing the presence orabsence of a stick at a given position the sensing means being connectedto engage the clutch to move the paper tape where a stick is absent froma predetermined location.
 10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9 whereinthe means for sensing the presence of a stick at a given position isconnected to an alarm means so as to sound a continuous alarm if themeans for intermittently transporting confection sticks fails tooperate.
 11. A method of inserting sticks into confection moldscomprising the steps of: transporting sticks intermittently to a seriesof stations in a plane across an array of advancing molds, gripping saidsticks near one end at the stations, moving the gripped end of saidsticks away from Said stations, moving the gripped sticks so that thefree end enters said confection molds and releasing said sticks.
 12. Amethod as claimed in claim 11 in which the step of moving the grippedsticks so that the free end enters confection molds comprises the stepof simultaneously turning and downwardly moving said sticks.
 13. Amethod as claimed in claim 12 and further comprising the step ofaltering the angle of said gripping sticks relative to one another whilesimultaneous with the step of turning said gripped sticks.